People who know me know that I
like to build strange looking aircraft (along with special markings, shark
mouths, biplanes, aces planes etc.). I first encountered this airplane at a
museum in Maracay, Venezuela. Venezuela had purchased a few of the
aircraft from France in the ‘30s and one still existed and was on display. It
looked impressive (and different) in person. When Squadron had a sale on this
kit, I decided to add it to the stash. Unfortunately, the kit that I purchased
was different from the version in Venezuela so I filed the box at the rear of my
shelves. Late last year, a group at Scale Modeling World decided to have a
challenge build and I thought that this Breguet might qualify as my
"gem".
Background
The Breguet 27 or 270 was
built in 1928 to an official French Government requirement for a two-seat
observation aircraft. The prototype Bre.270.01 made its maiden flight on
23 February 1929.
This two-seat all-metal
sesquiplane introduced a number of interesting design features.
High-tensile steel replaced aluminum alloys, and the short fuselage,
engine, lower wing and tail boom were all attached to a steel chassis,
resulting in a very tough aircraft. Two of them were displayed at the 1930
Paris Salon de I'Aeronautique.
Over 100 of the basic
models were produced for the French Armee de I'Air and for export to
Brazil, China and Venezuela. Most of the models were two seater versions
with a machine gun mounted behind the pilot. A few, however were
subsequently modified to add a faired-in rear cabin and an extra seat for
use as a reconnaissance aircraft only.
At the outbreak of World
War II a number of the French Aerial Observation Groups (manned largely by
reserve pilots) still had Bre.27s active. A number of Bre.27s were shot
down while on reconnaissance patrols across the Rhine before being
withdrawn from service at the end of 1939.
Click on
images below to see larger images
This Azur kit covers the
reconnaissance version of the Breguet 27. A different kit covered the
two-seater. The kit is typical of a low volume production and contains a number
of injection molded plastic parts, a number of resin parts and a vacuformed
canopy/windscreen. The injected parts have reasonable surface detail but lack
assembly alignment provisions and offer somewhat crude details of such items as
the main and tail wheels. The resin parts are well molded and without flaws.
Their shapes do not necessarily fit into the injection molded parts so lots of
test fitting is required. Decals provide markings for three aircraft of the
Armee de I'Air. The box cover shows in interesting airplane with the upper
portion of the fuselage colored natural metal. Unfortunately, the painting
instructions do not show this version. I ended up following the kit directions
although I eventually found a photo of the natural metal topped version and
could have modified the decals to represent that one if I had known soon enough.
Assembly starts with the cockpit.
Resin seats for the two observers and the pilot are well molded and feature
realistic looking seat belts. They are mounted to a resin portion of the steel
chassis as it runs through the cabin. The control stick and rudder pedals are
also attached to this and it is mounted into the fuselage. Also included are
resin panels inside the observer portion of the fuselage. The rear panel needed
to be tapered slightly in order to fit into the fuselage. Additional interior
resin components are included. In most cases, the modeler must guess the
location of the parts. No location provisions are included. With everything in
place, the interior of the fuselage is a busy place. The rear seat occupants had
very little legroom and the pilot’s area was also crowded. I ended up not
being able to install a couple of the resin parts but I don’t think that they
are missed. Before the fuselage is closed, two resin parts need to be installed
in the engine area. These parts are numbered part 30 and require careful sawing
to remove them from the pouring stems. Next they require much clean up to fit
into the slots at the front of the fuselage. The parts look like exhausts for a
Bf-109 but in fact are air intakes and should be mounted with the vanes aimed
forward. My model has them mounted backwards. When I realized this, they were
super glued in place and since I had broken them two or three times during clean
up and assembly, I decided to leave them as they were.
The lower wing
is molded in two pieces and includes very shallow mounting locations for
the landing gear. The two-piece upper and lower wings both require some
sanding on the inside surfaces to remove prominent mold ejection marks
etc. I also slightly sanded the exterior surfaces to reduce the heavy
surface detail. No locating provisions are provided but the two wings
assemble easily. The empennage consists of two rudder/rear fuselage halves
and a one-piece horizontal stabilizer. These parts fit together and
required, surprisingly, little filler.
Following assembly of the
fuselage, I mounted the lower wing. This fit well. Next, I added the rear
fuselage/empennage. Mounting provisions in this case consisted of two sort
of flat surfaces. Lots of care is required for this step because if this
one small joint is off, it is apparent either from the side, the top or
the front view. At this point, you have a cute little airplane sort of
like some of those taxi-trainers.
Next, the main landing gear
and tail wheel are mounted. The main landing gear is crude. The wheel is
molded integral with the struts and wheel pants. Kind of like the old Frog
Fokker D.21.
Final Assembly
I chose to paint and decal the
model before the final assembly steps. When everything was dry, I added the
greenhouse and windshield. It appears that Azur originally provided these parts
in molded plastic but this was replaced with vacuformed versions. I was
reasonably pleased with the vacuformed parts and was able to easily mount the
main greenhouse. Next, the two parts of the windshield were mounted.
I have started using small
fixtures to ensure proper alignment of upper wings on biplanes. First, I find a
suitable 3-view drawing of the airplane then I produce two 1/72 scale copies of
the drawing. I apply these to sheets of foamcore and cut out portions that will
accurately locate the top wing relative to the bottom wing. When these are
fitted in place, the wing position is defined and the inverted "V"
strut, behind the windshield can be fitted in place so that it properly supports
the rear of the wing. At this point, I applied glue to the top of the greenhouse
and windshield and the inverted "V" strut and fitted the top wing in
place. When the glue dried, with the fixtures still in place, I installed the
large "V" shaped interplane struts. Some very small dimples are
available on the lower wing to help with the positioning. When everything was
dry, the fixtures were removed and the tripod struts were installed in front of
the windshield.
The remaining assembly items were
the propeller and the radiator below the nose. The propeller on this kit is one
of the poorest designs that I have seen. It consists of a resin hub and two
injection molded blades. The ends of the blades are spherical shaped and fit
into hemispherical openings in the hub. There is nothing to key this assembly.
After four or five attempts, I finally achieved a reasonable looking prop. The
radiator mounts under the nose of the model. No alignment provisions are
provided so it was eyeballed in place. In retrospect, it appears that the
radiator is oversize. If I were to build the model again, I would probably thin
the part and also taper it in the front view.
I scratch built some small lights
on the upper wing tips to correspond to photos of the aircraft (and the kit box)
and also added some bent wire to form steps for the fuselage.
The kit is typical of low volume
kits. Some of the detail is very good and some of it is only fair. The modelers
have to utilize more of their skills to achieve a reasonable model however, with
care, a unique subject can be produced. While the kit did not represent the
aircraft that I saw on display in Venezuela, I am pleased that I persevered and
added this unique airplane to my collection.
Reference material
- Scale Aircraft Modelling
Volume 24, Number 10 – December 2002. Great three view drawings
Clare
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